Book review: A Pirate Looks at Fifty
Jimmy Buffett (b. 1946)
Ballantine Books, New York, 1998
Full disclosure: I’m not a Parrothead,
but I’m related by blood and marriage to gen-you-wine Buffett fans, so I take
the liberty of using familiar language, even though “the king of somewhere hot”
has never seen me and isn’t likely to in this earthly paradise….
A
Pirate Looks at Fifty is a
memoir-ish book by Himself, written almost 20 years ago, I spotted it in the
local library’s discarded book sale bin and I did the right thing.
Seems to me, for starters, no one
should ever discard a book full of Jimmy Buffett stuff, he’s just so much in
love with life and he is a magnet for vicarious attention, I dare you to read Pirate without getting at least a
fleeting urge to head for the islands and see the world through Jimmy’s eyes.
You don’t even have to read the whole
book (I confess, I didn’t), just read as much as gets the juices flowing and
then get on with your regular life, and you can dip into it again any time you
want. Buffett’s music and Buffett’s style are a buffet—grab what you want, anytime,
sing along as the spirit moves, and go back for more whenever….
You don’t even have to like margaritas to get the full, slobbering, belly laugh, hijinksed, hot damn but mucho mellow effect when you sing along with Jimmy about the Mexican cutie and the lost shaker of salt.
I dare you not to sing a couple verses and the refrain right now, you have to, really….
Copyright © Richard Carl
Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
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